The Night Shift
Issue Chronology 1. "This Is The End!" HAVOC is newly resurgent in New York. Manhunter and Mistral come together to raid a HAVOC base. HAVOC, led by Manhunter's old enemy Doctor Zum, is attempting to release the supervillain Ogre for a rampage across New York, but Manhunter and Mistral defeat the terrorists and stop Ogre as well. 2-3. "Broken Arrow." Using data taken from Mentat's captured hard drive, Manhunter and Mistral track Black Sunday. They then stop the supervillains from taking decommissioned nuclear warheads from a military train in upstate New York. 4. "Oz." '' Manhunter's old army buddy, Oz Traynor, leaves his young daughter with Manhunter for safety. He is about to be executed by Petro 's goons in a junkyard for not paying his gambling debts, but Manhunter and Mistral save him from death at the hands of Cheapshot . Manhunter sends Oz out of town with enough money to pay his debts. Manhunter contacts Petro directly, and taunts him, and sets up a secret surveillance post to monitor the crimelord. A contract is placed on Manhunter's head by Petro. ''5. "Dancing with Mr D." Manhunter and Mistral discover a new street drug known as Darkhorse, or D, created by Mistral's enemy Kaotik using his shadow magic. The highly addictive drug warps minds and ruins lives. They track the drug to its source, battle Kaotik and his henchman Tombstone , and destroy Kaotik's lab operation. 6. "One Shot, One Kill!" '' Supervillains Arsenal and Rage, hired by Petro, ambush the heroes in the streets, but Manhunter and Mistral defeat them both. ''7. "Compounded Interest." '' Manhunter and Mistral discover and defeat the unlucky Vermin as they are about to rob a bank near Manhunter's lair. While they battle the Vermin, Police Commissioner Downey is assassinated, and Manhunter is blamed for the murder. ''8. "Seems Like Old Times." '' The hero Overcoat, who was friends with Downey, tracks down Manhunter through one of Manhunter's informants. He confronts Manhunter but Mistral shoots down Overcoat while invisible. Manhunter and Mistral return to the scene of the assassination to clear Manhunter's name, and track Manhunter's old foe, Crossbones, who was working in concert with HAVOC. Crossbones, a former HAVOC operative, he is really the assassin behind Downey's murder. They tackle him at an old construction site. Crossbones, defeated, reveals that the entire plot was an attempt by HAVOC to frame and disgrace Manhunter. ''9. "Shadows of Night." '' Mistral travels with Seeker to Black Iron prison, in upstate New York, to interrogate Kaotik. While there, the Sisters of Shadow appear, enter the prison, knock out Seeker and the nearby guards, and exorcise Kaotik. They warn Mistral not to interfere but suggest she can learn more about her powers by seeking them out. ''10-11. "If I Should Forsake Thee..." Oz returns to New York and, out of gratitude, proposes to help the two heroes as a technician. He gets to work right away. Mistral's wealthy grandmother, Nana Grace, is kidnapped by the supervillain team the Bad News (Blood , Doctor Sanity, Masque, and Black Orchid). Mistral and Manhunter trace the villains to an old church, where they defeat them and rescue Mistral's Nana. Blood brings the whole church down, and the Bad News escapes via the church's catacombs. 12''. "Above the Law."'' Crossbones escapes from PHASE II custody with Tombstone. The two villains make an attempt to steal an airplane from an upstate airfield to complete their escape, but Manhunter and Mistral pursue them in a spectacular midair chase, down the airplane, and recapture them. 13.'' "Pride and Prejudice."'' Manhunter and Mistral investigate the disappearance from the streets of some local homeless. They encounter Overcoat, also investigating the disappearances, and the three heroes team up to stop a nearby armored car robbery by the supervillain team S.W.A.T.. Overcoat uses his abilities to make the villains battle one another and the heroes clean up the remnants. 14. ''"Devil in the Dark."'' The three heroes track the disappearances to a local sewer, where they find the malfunctioning cyborg MeatMachine, who has been stalking and murdering homeless people. The cyborg turns out to be a match for all three of them, and is only stopped after Manhunter rigs some improvised weaponry from his bo-staff, detonating all the charges at once at close range. Affected by the death of his homeless friend Dutch, Overcoat decides to clean up his act, quit alcohol, and walk a better path. He asks Manhunter to construct him a prosthetic arm. 15. ''"Ring of Fire."'' Three executives are murdered at a Grace Company subsidiary, Funtime. Overcoat learns about a HAVOC operation from one of his informants, the Violinist. A cargo of particle weapons is being shipped in at night aboard a Bugundan freighter. The heroes raid the docks, and battle FirePower and a gang of HAVOC agents to stop the smugglers. They also learn about a secret HAVOC base and make plans to visit. Annual #1. "The Knight Shift." The team awakens in a dreamlike medieval New York City, where Manhunter is an outlaw knight, Overcoat a psychic healer, and Mistral a princess of a noble house. The team's former adversaries have new roles in this changed reality: Blood is the barbarian king of New York, Crossbones is captain of the King's Guard, and Kaotik the royal jester. Using his psychic powers, Overcoat discovers they are all in a drug-induced hallucination inside Doctor Sanity's lab. The rest of the Bad News are close at hand. Overcoat helps his teammates them break free of the illusion, and the team makes quick work of the villains. 16-17. "Jungle Land." In a flashback, Avenger's beloved Mariko is killed by Anarky. The Night Shift raid HAVOC's local strike base, in a chemical factory in New Jersey. They are joined by Avenger, who has returned to New York to take on Anarky. In a huge epic battle, the base is destroyed and HAVOC's power is broken. Anarky is presumed dead in the destruction of the base. The villain Solarion dies fleeing a battle with his own teammates. Kasimir Zolner, a troubled Yatakang War veteran, adopts the villain's battlesuit as his own. 18. "Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself..." On a stormy night, Mistral is summoned to a mysterious meeting at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. She encounters Ahriman, who tells her about a coming Shadow War and how she needs to choose sides. He offers to make her his apprentice in Shadow. He darkly hints that by failing to find allies, she could get caught in a terrible crossfire. Mistral tells him to take a walk, only not so politely. 19. "First Blood." The disappearances of the homeless continue. Manhunter does some investigation on his own, and runs into intrepid Web journalist Darcy Riggs, also investigating. At that moment, Manhunter receives an urgent call from Mistral, under attack by Ahriman. When Manhunter arrives at Mistral's penthouse, he finds most of it in flames and the rest going fast. Ahriman quickly deals with both heroes, and is about to put the coup de grace to Mistral when Booster and SHOC arrive to chase off Ahriman. Mistral and Manhunter survive, but the same cannot be said of the penthouse or Manhunter's cycle. Worst of all, Mistral's beloved (and already ailing) Nana dies of smoke inhalation. 20. "Enter: A Soldier." The crew meets up with Darcy Riggs, who claims to have seen a combat cyborg stalking the area around Washington Square Park, where the homeless are disappearing. They then intervene in a battle between the NYPD and a battle-suited soldier who is calling out Yatakang military codes. He claims that the area is under his protection. The Night Shift fights him to a standstill before the soldier escapes to fight another day. 21. "Everybody Hail to the Pumpkin King!" On the last day of October, Trinity Grace attends a benefit costume party held at the Andrews Museum. She meets Micah Swann. The supervillain Halloween shows up with a gang of thugs to rob the place, but Mistral and Manhunter deal quickly with him.Category:HistoriesCategory:The Night Shift